Chapter 22

The Time Of The
End

THE book of prophecy was to be
closed up and sealed till "the time of the end." "But
thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time
of the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased." Daniel 12:4. The question was then asked: "How
long shall it be?" And the answer was given: "It shall be for
a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to
scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be
finished." V. 6, 7.

We have seen (pp. 52-60) that the
"time, times, and an half," during which the papacy should
scatter God's true followers, began in 538 A. D., and ended in 1798 A.
D. And as "the time of the end" begins when this period
"shall be finished." it is plain that "the time of the
end" began in 1798 A.D. And at that time "many shall run to
and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Daniel 12:4. And it is
remarkable how knowledge has been increased since 1798, not tuffy in the
prophecies, but also in general, as we shall presently see. But we must
answer one question first. Some ask why God wanted to give important
prophecies, and then keep them sealed up for so many centuries. There is
a reason.

The prophecies give solemn
warnings against the papal power. If these prophecies had been fully
understood during the Dark Ages, when the Roman Catholic Church burned
all books she thought were damaging to her, those prophecies would have
suffered the same fate. Therefore God spoke in symbolic language, and
placed the keys to those symbols where they would not be found till the
Papacy lost its power, when God would impress the minds of His people
where to find the keys. No one who locks his house will leave the key in
the door, but he puts it where only members of his family know where to
find it. Just so the Lord did with His prophecies. (The keys to
prophetic symbols are given on page 34.) When these prophecies were to
be opened at "the time of the end," their message would have
to go quickly to earth's remotest bounds. (Revelation 14:6, 7; Romans
9:28.) And as this could never have been accomplished without the modern
printing press, and the more speedy means of travel and communication,
the Lord set in motion those spurs in the human breast that led to new
discoveries. During the 1260 years of papal supremacy, people did not
dare to think freely, or independently of the lines of education
established by the Church. (See p. 127.) Galileo's trial by the
Inquisition in 1623 will serve as an example of how advancement in
science and invention was opposed by the church of Rome. But when in
1798 the Papacy lost its power, its downfall broke the shackles, and
unloosed the world's genius, so that invention followed invention in
quick succession.

Table Of Inventions

Gas for lighting purposes

1798

Cast-iron plows

1800

Steel pens for writing

1803

First locomotive

1804

First steamboat

1808

Steam printing press

1811

Passenger cars for trains

1825

Kerosene for lighting
purposes

1825

Matches

1829

Mowing machine, reaper

1833

First electric motor

1834

Telegraph

1837

Photography

1839

First message: "What
hath God wrought!"

1844

Submarine telegraph cable

1851

Typewriter

1868

Telephone

1876

Phonograph

1877

Electric railway

1879

Linotype

1885

Automobile

1893

Wireless telegraphy

1895

Aeroplane, first
successful flight

1903

Radio broadcasting

1921

Television

1926

Pushbutton elevator

1934

Airplane bombsight

1940

Prophecy had decreed that in the
day of God's preparation for finishing His work on earth,
"knowledge shall be increased"; and when His hour struck for
the giving of His last warning message, nothing could stop it. We read:
"The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of His
preparation .... The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall
justle one against another in the broad ways, they shall seem like
torches, they shall run like the lightnings." Nahum 2:3, 4.

How could any one give a better
description of modern railroads and automobiles? Even the coming of the
Zeppelin and the airplane is foretold in the Bible: "Who are these
that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" Isaiah
60:8. The simile is striking, for doves and airplanes both need landing
places. This prophecy speaks of a time when "darkness shall cover
the earth, and gross darkness the people," while God's glorious
light is shining upon His faithful servants. (Verses 1, 2.) This was
never more true than now. The book of prophecy, that had been closed for
centuries, is now opened to God's people. (Daniel 12:4, 10; Revelation
5:1-9; 10:1, 2, 8-11; 22:6, 7, 16.) Light is now shining from the throne
of God upon them, while evolution, infidelity, spiritism, and Roman
Catholic superstitions are enveloping the world in the grossest of
spiritual darkness, and crime is at its high tide. Thinking people are
everywhere scanning the horizon to detect some prophetic message from
heaven that will cast light on the present chaos.

William T. Ellis, in an article
entitled, "Why Don't the Churches Settle Things?" which
appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, of February 12, 1921, points out
this fact in a striking manner. He says:

"There never before was a
greater interest in religion in America than today–or a smaller
interest in the churches. This is the paradox of our times ....

"Ever since the war began,
the country has been listening for a clear trumpet note from some
prophet of the living God. In vain." He then speaks of "the
church's reproach of having failed in her prophetic function."
After relating the concern of two business men on this point he says:

"That incident brings me
squarely up against one of the most uncomfortable, perplexing and
tragic situations in connection with this entire theme of the strange
spiritual stirrings of the race today. Many clergymen seem scarcely
aware of what is going forward beneath the surface of life. Many
experts upon religion, who are the ministers of the gospel, have
seemingly failed to hear 'the sound of a going in the tops of the
mulberry trees.' Otherwise we should find them gathering with agony of
soul in protracted sessions of prayer ....

"Morbid minds could easily
persuade themselves that there is a present visitation of blindness
upon the teachers of religion."

D.L. Moody says:

"If God did not mean to have
us study the prophecies, He would not have put them into the Bible
About one third of the Bible is prophetical ....

"The return of the Lord to
this earth is taught in the New Testament as clearly as any other
doctrine in it Whoever neglects this has only a mutilated gospel Yet I
was in the church fifteen or sixteen years before I ever heard a
sermon on it .... I can see a reason for this; the Devil does not want
us to see this truth, for nothing would wake up the church so much.
The moment a man realizes that Jesus Christ is coming back again to
receive His followers to Himself, this world loses its hold upon
him."–"The Second Coming of Christ," pp. 17, 18.